General | 4/3/2024 2:36:00 PM
New York, New York – Today, the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) announced their Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll for the Fall 2023 semester, handing out 356 citations for academic excellence.
The BMCC Athletics program added to their on-the-field dominance during the fall 2023 season with exemplary performance in the classroom, headlining the community colleges with a league-best 19 Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll honorees, beating out Queensborough and Kingsborough, who each had 12 honorees, followed by Bronx (8), LaGuardia (5) and Hostos (4). The CUNYAC Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll is constructed with student-athletes across all 14 member campuses who participate in a varsity-level sport and who own a 3.2 or better on a 4.0 scale. The list includes sports that conducted their championship in the fall (men's & women's cross country, men's & women's soccer, women's tennis, and women's volleyball).
"Seeing BMCC lead the way on the field of play and in the classroom for a second straight fall season amongst CUNY Community Colleges is very exciting as the AD," said
Matthew Ruiz, Director of Athletics & Recreation at BMCC. "Having the most student-athletes with a 3.2 GPA or higher while claiming two Fall Championships and an individual league title in women's cross country is a feat we all are very proud of. It's truly remarkable that as we continue to grow the program, we will strive to ensure academics and athletics go hand in hand at BMCC."
The 2023 BMCC men's soccer team carried the torch for the department in the fall with 12 CUNYAC Fall Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll selections, while women's soccer came in with three while women's volleyball had two, and men's and women's cross country had one individual recognized from both squads.
2023 CUNYAC Community College Women's Soccer Championship MVP,
Nathali Ocampo-Lopez (Quimbaya, Colombia), was the only athlete with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
BMCC Athletics put together an accolade-filled fall on the field, grabbing a second straight CUNYAC men's soccer championship and the women's soccer program's first-ever conference title.
Lea Reimer (Paderborn, Germany) was the first Panther runner in school history to take home the
Individual CUNYAC Community College Cross Country Crown in the program's second-ever season.
Sophomore
Ademola Opesanwo's (Lagos, Nigeria) game-winning right-footed blast capped off three straight second-half Panthers goals and served as the game-winner to lead BMCC to its league-best
14th CUNYAC Championship over Kingsborough Community College 3-2.
Opensanwo earned his second straight CUNYAC All-Star and Region 15 All-Region 15 First Team selection for his outstanding sophomore campaign, leading the Panthers with four game-winning goals, including the game-winner in the
2023 CUNYAC Community College Men's Soccer Title and
career and team-best 10 assists, which was
third most in a single season while also finishing
second on the team with 26 points and third with eight goals, both career bests.
Mohammed Alghanimi (Brooklyn, New York) had the equalizer in the
2023 CUNYAC Community College Men's Soccer Championship and joined teammates
Hamilton Azon, Nanga Adam Coulibaly (Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast), Moussa Diawara, Kosmas Fertitta-Boutis (Wilmington, North Carolina), Niklas Filippi (New York, New York), John Guzman (Brooklyn, New York), Billy Hoyos (Bronx, New York), Nikola Ivkovic (Belgrade, Serbia), As Mouhamadou Ndiaye (Brooklyn, New York), Abdoul Sinare (Brooklyn, New York) on the 2023 Fall Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll.
Ocampo-Lopez and
Yamile Bastidas (Quito, Ecuador), who were both named to the 2023 Fall Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll, played crucial roles in leading the BMCC Women's Soccer program to their
first-ever CUNYAC Championship with a decisive 7-0 victory over Queensborough Community College.
Ocampo-Lopez and
Bastidas were also both named
2023 All-Region 15 First Team and Second Team, with
Ocampo-Lopez, put together one of the best overall seasons in program history during the fall, netting a team-high nine goals and three hat tricks (all against CUNYAC opponents) while posting a team-best 20 points. The Quimbaya, Colombia native's goal total was third most in a single season and fourth all-time. Her best game came during the 2023
CUNYAC Community College Women's Soccer Championship Game, where she registered a career-high seven points on three goals and an assist to go along with a career-best 11 shots.
Bastidas ranked third in (4) goals, including the game-winner in the 2023
CUNYAC Community College Women's Soccer Title Game. She was third in points (10) and assists (2), while teammate
Katelyn Walrond-Scott (Brooklyn, New York) was also named on the 2023 CUNYAC Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll.
Reimer and
Trent Santoro (Queens, New York) helped elevate the cross-country country program during its second season.
Reimer finished second at the
2023 CUNYAC Cross Country Championships and was the top Junior College finisher amongst a field of 63 runners with a time of 28:00.6, just a minute behind the 2023 CUNYAC Four Year Women's Cross Country Individual Champion Paz Moran, who finished with a time of 26:48.4. The Paderborn, Germany native also earned
a Region 15 Championship medal for her second-place finish with a time of 22:41 at the St. Joseph's Cross Country Invitational, while also becoming the
program's first-ever NJCAA Division III Cross Country Runner of the Week.
Santoro was one of two runners to register a top-five finish for the first time in program history with a fourth-place finish with a time of 34:26.9 at the
Medgar Evers College Legacy Invitational and led the men's cross country program to a second-place finish at the
2023 CUNYAC Cross County Championships with a second straight top 20 finish in 17th place with a time of 32:18.
Marie Claire Hurtado (Bronx, New York) and
Crystal Saw (Brooklyn, New York) represented the BMCC women's volleyball team on the 2023 Fall Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll.
Below are the following 19 student-athletes selected to the 2023 Fall Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll:
ABOUT THE ATHLETIC PROGRAM AT BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE
The athletic program at Borough of Manhattan Community College encompasses a total of 13 varsity teams competing at the NJCAA Division III level. For the latest news on the Panthers, please visit us a
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